BNSF’s new Memphis yard to lift cargo, economy

If a seaport were built on dry land, it would look a lot like Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad's new Memphis intermodal facility, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. Giant cranes loom over vast expanses of tracks, roads and parking, soon to be piled high with oceangoing shipping containers.

Virtually completed and
tentatively set for an October startup, it’s also a $200-million vote of
confidence in the city’s strategic importance in moving consumer goods across
the nation.

Officials at BNSF, the
nation’s No. 2 railroad, say they have redefined state-of-the-art, combining
environmentally friendly container-handling equipment with high-tech operations
and security. Global-positioning-system technology will direct movement of
trucks, trains, freight and people around the 185-acre site. Truck drivers will
gain entry by putting thumbprints in a biometric reader.

Production cranes — 90
feet high and 270 feet across — straddle six, 8,000-foot-long sets of track,
two truck lanes and space for containers stacked four wide by four high. The
electric cranes will replace diesel hydraulic cranes that are significant
polluters; their expansive reach will eliminate a major amount of interior
truck movement of containers, known as hostling.

"There’s no other
facility like this in the United States," said Scott Jenkins, Memphis
intermodal facility manager for BNSF.

The hub has taken shape
over the past couple of years along the north side of Lamar Avenue between
Perkins and Shelby Drive. The site was sparsely populated last week, except for
an occasional truck on its way to the smaller, existing intermodal yard.
Jenkins said federal inspectors were certifying cranes for operation, and
training sessions for crane operators were scheduled for this week.

The expansion nearly
doubles BNSF’s intermodal capacity in Memphis and provides on-site potential
for one million lifts a year. The current 50-acre yard did 318,000 lifts,
nearly full capacity, in 2006, but volume has declined as the world economy has
contracted.

The new hub positions BNSF
to benefit from a rebound in shipping, when it comes.

"That’s the big deal.
If you built a regular intermodal facility on this footprint, you’d probably
get 500,000 (lifts). There’s nowhere else to go," Jenkins said. "Obviously,
it puts us in a real good position. We know (volume) is going to come back.
It’s a matter of having capacity when it does.

BNSF is taking advantage of
Memphis’s geography and infrastructure to bolster intermodal business, viewed
as a greener alternative to long-haul trucking. Union Pacific, Canadian
Northern and CSX Transportation also are using newer intermodal hubs here, and
Norfolk Southern will build the next one, in Fayette County.

Jim Covington, Greater
Memphis Chamber vice president of logistics and Aerotropolis, called BNSF’s hub
"a very impressive investment in this economic period. The idea that all
five of these railroads have picked Memphis as a coordinated location for these
yards is a confirmation of our logistics geography. It means there are a lot of
smart people out there who think that Memphis is a rail center."

Down the road, BNSF will
bring jobs and economic growth to its immediate vicinity and the Memphis area,
Covington said.

"The yard supports all
kinds of different industries in the surrounding area," he said.
"You’ve got warehouse and distribution jobs. You’ve got drayage jobs where
trucks move goods from one facility to another. All of that’s going to pick
up."